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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Wings of War - Solo Game

Like any great game, Wings of War has quite an enthusiastic online community built up. Over at the Wings of War/Glory Aerodrome you can find all manner of house-rules, missions, campaigns, tutorials, rule questions answered and camaraderie!

Though the game Wings of War is geared for two or more players the Aerodrome has a great set of solo rules. I gave them a run this weekend and found them to be quick and easy to use and kept the game pretty thrilling!

Here's my usual over-dramatic take on my first solo game duel...

From the flight journal of Q. E. Watson
23 November, 1915

I was flying a solo patrol at 6,000 meters over the French countryside which had now become a dreary landscape of desolation, when J.R. Martin,
my observer, spotted a Hun over his territory in what appeared to be one
of those new Albatross bi-planes.

The both of us moved in for the engagement, guns blazing! I know I scored some hits as I saw his canvas flapping in the wind.

Martin let loose as we passed and I immediately spun around to catch this devil again!

With the colorful plane in my sites I pulled the trigger on my Lewis MG.

But this Hun was crafty and he flew his maneuverable plane like the devil himself, twirling and spinning...

and we danced in the air like two crossed lovers, firing our guns trying to steal that kiss.

Suddenly I faltered and this German got in tight behind me and riddled
me good! My engine smoked, my wings shredded. Martin tried his best to finish our enemy off as he was stuck right in my observers sites
but curse our luck, Martin's gun jammed!

I thought it best to head low into the safety of the French territory to gain some cover from friendly troops. The German airman must have thought himself lucky as well and choose not to press his luck and did not peruse us. Martin
and I were happy to escape with our lives and looked forward to some
brandy back at the canteen to calm our rattled nerves.

Solo Game Thoughts

This was the first solo game I ran using Richard Bradley's rules with the altered maneuver card sheets (with the die roll of a 1 or 6 giving a separate result). Running the single plane AI went surprisingly quickly and the game moved along well. It was a bit nerve wracking as I thought I would be able to press my early advantage but the AI was relentless in it's maneuvering and attacks. I did get the Albatross in my sites a number of times but kept drawing zeros from the B deck and couldn't finish him off. He did get fewer hits on my but they were more damaging. We both ended up with only 1 or 2 HP left when I decided to retreat. I'll probably add the pilot attitude table to my solo games as well. It may flesh out the AI pilot a bit more and give him the option to retreat if wounded too much which would aid me a bit as he wouldn't just be a killing machine!